Cape Town Mayor urges Ramaphosa to empower metro police against gang crime

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has challenged President Cyril Ramaphosa to allow municipal police to help the South African Police Service (SAPS) investigate gang-related crime in the Western Cape.

Hill-Lewis has welcomed Ramaphosa's announcement for the South African National Defence Force( SANDF) to be deployed in gang hotspots as a short-term stabilisation solution. The mayor says Metro Police are ready to produce prosecution-ready criminal case dockets to increase convictions for gang crime.

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says city police are already confiscating 450 illegal guns per year; however, the conviction rate for those cases is just five percent. Hill-Lewis says President Cyril Ramaphosa has the power to change the situation.

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"The only sustainable real solution is for policing powers to be given to our Metro Police officers so that they can do actual investigations and actually get violent criminals off the streets."

The mayor says, if need be, the city will approach the courts to push for more Metro policing powers.